Chương 4
“What did she say?”
“That you two had argued.”
Daniel leaned against the vending machine.
The argument had been about Thanksgiving. Lily wanted to remain at Bradley to work in a laboratory during the break. Daniel had called the decision irresponsible, then strategic, then irresponsible again. Lily said he used military words when he wanted control to sound reasonable.
“You don’t trust me to make one choice without turning it into a risk assessment,” she had told him.
“You’re nineteen. Risk assessment is what keeps nineteen-year-olds alive.”
She had hung up.
Karen said, “She told me she was working on something important.”
“Did she say what?”
“She said she’d found a problem in her lab.”
“What kind of problem?”
“I don’t know. I asked whether she was safe, and she said she was being dramatic.”
“Lily said you were being dramatic?”
“No. She said she was.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she asked me not to. Because she’s an adult. Because not every concern belongs to you.”
“She’s in surgery because somebody shattered her face.”
“And that makes every mistake look like a warning after the fact. Don’t do that to her. Don’t do it to yourself.”
Daniel threw the coffee away with enough force to splash the inside of the trash can.
Karen heard it.
“Please don’t become who you become when you’re scared,” she said.
“And who is that?”
“The only person allowed to make decisions.”
The call ended badly. Most calls between them did. They had once loved each other enough to mistake familiarity for permanence, then hurt each other with the accuracy only familiarity made possible.
At dawn, Lily was taken to surgery.
Daniel walked beside the bed until a nurse stopped him at the double doors. Lily’s eye found his. He lifted a hand, and she lifted two fingers from beneath the blanket.
It was an old signal. When she was seven, Daniel had taught her to hold up two fingers whenever they separated in crowded places. It meant I see you.
He held up two fingers in return.
The doors closed.
Soto called at 7:18.
“Officer Ben Dodd did not find your daughter.”
Daniel stood near a window overlooking the ambulance bay. “Then who did?”
“According to dispatch, the emergency call came from a wall phone in Carver Science Center. The caller did not identify himself. Dodd arrived four minutes later and found Lily outside the east entrance.”
“Outside?”
“Under the awning.”
“Rusk said Dodd moved her.”
“Dodd says he did not.”
“Did paramedics find a phone?”
“No.”
“What about Rusk?”
“He says he was at the security office all night.”
“Camera?”
“There’s video of him entering at nine eleven. There is no video of him leaving before midnight.”
“That doesn’t mean he stayed.”
“No.”
“Where is the footage from Carver?”
“They gave us several files. There is a gap.”
Daniel pressed his palm against the cold glass.
“How long?”
“Twenty-three minutes. Eleven seventeen to eleven forty.”
“The attack happened during that gap.”
“Likely.”
“And they call that cooperation?”
“They say a network switch rebooted during the storm.”
“Did it?”
“We’re checking.”
“Check whether Rusk’s access badge was used.”
Soto did not answer immediately.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“We found part of a badge in the hoodie pocket.”
He turned from the window.
“Whose?”
“The printed name is Wade Rusk.”
Daniel said nothing.
“It appears to be a temporary building-access credential,” Soto continued. “The corner is broken, and the clip is missing. We’re processing it.”
“He was there.”
“It supports that possibility.”
“He stood in my daughter’s hospital room and lied.”
“It supports that possibility too.”
“Where is he now?”
“We don’t know.”
“You interviewed him.”
“At the security office. He left before we discovered the badge.”
“You let him leave?”
“He wasn’t under arrest.”
“Now?”
“We’re trying to locate him.”
Daniel ended the call before saying something he could not take back.
He stood there until a paramedic walked past carrying a paper plate with two glazed doughnuts. The man glanced at Daniel’s uniform and nodded. Daniel nodded back. For a few absurd seconds, he wondered whether the doughnuts were for the man alone or whether one belonged to someone waiting in the ambulance.
Then he called Soto again.
She answered with, “What?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For hanging up or for what you were about to say?”
“Both.”
“That’s unusually efficient.”
“What can I do?”
“Stay with Lily.”
“I can make calls.”
“No.”
“I know people.”
“That concerns me.”
“I have contacts in federal law enforcement and military investigations.”
“This is not a military operation.”
“My daughter may have uncovered something in a university laboratory.”
“Why do you think that?”
He told her about Karen’s call.
Soto asked for Karen’s number and the name of Lily’s laboratory. Daniel did not know it.
The ignorance embarrassed him. He knew Lily was studying biochemistry. He knew she complained about organic chemistry and loved a professor who brought his elderly dog to office hours. He knew her student housing payment cleared on the first of each month. He did not know the name on the laboratory door where she spent three nights a week.
“Her roommate will know,” he said.
“We’re contacting her.”
“I’ll call.”
“Colonel—”
“It’s not an interrogation. I’ve met her.”
“Do not mention the badge.”
“Why?”
“Because only the attacker, a witness, and investigators should know we found it. If that detail spreads, it becomes useless for testing statements.”
Daniel had taught young officers the same principle.
“I understand.”
“Stay out of the investigation.”
“I said I understand.”
“That is not the same sentence.”
He almost smiled. It surprised him enough that the feeling vanished.
Lily’s roommate was named Tessa Reed. She answered on the second call, whispering.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Where are you?”
“In my dorm.”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“Lock the door.”
A pause. Then a deadbolt slid into place.
“What happened to Lily?”
May you like
Daniel told her only that Lily was alive and undergoing surgery.
Tessa began crying. She tried to hide it by turning away from the phone, but Daniel heard the broken rhythm of her breathing.
